Author: Wess

...is the William R. Rogers Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC., PhD in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary, served as a "released minister" at Camas Friends Church, and father of three. He enjoys sketchnoting, sharing conversation over coffee with a friend, listening to vinyl and writing creative nonfiction.

I must say that these conversations as of late have been very stimulating, all this talk about living and not living in places of perceived danger and felt danger. I have some last words to say before I head out on a two-week hiatus in a couple days.

I am not trying to con-vice anyone and especially Shane of my position for I know that if I were to seek to do that I would be trying to convince someone to Wess’ truth not God’s. However, I do not see myself as one who is misled by the Spirit and thus I feel it necessary to exegete my view further, with a greater depth and clarity so that there may be peace and understanding of how I see (and how I ultimately feel the Spirit has led me to see) these things discussed.

First to my friend (and I mean that with the utmost sincerity) Shane, In one of your recent posts you said, it seems like some Christians want to frown upon my wife and I for moving out of a not so nice neighborhood (which I’m just going to call the ghetto) because too many Christians are moving out.” I must respond in an offer of peace, that I would much rather you think of my comments as first coming from friend and then coming from a Christian. The reason for the splitting of these hairs are that often to say a Christian thinks this or that about me” equates He or she is judging me.” I have added comments first as a friend who feels that I have room to make comments in a constructive way and further, and in the hopes to create dialog that will be beneficial to all for I know that as we seek to have clear and fair dialogue with one another the Spirit is able to teach us all. This was a basic premise that underlined our Monday Night Bible study back in the day, we believed that everyone had a right to speak, that is those who are of faith in Christ, because we all have the spirit of God within us. So take this as a peace offering.

Secondly, I think as people of faith we ought to be intentional about becoming more aware of those who are underprivileged, oppressed or just down and out. This is why the word Ghetto” makes my spine tingle, and why the connotations with that word are even worse. What we I think we mean (and I mean we because I am guilty of it too) when we say Ghetto is something more discriminatory, and often classist or racist. What I mean is that Ghetto has a very negative and hurtful connotation, hurtful to God who is the God of the oppressed (and Ghettos are often times homes of the oppressed – this is a basic historical point). The Minor Prophets in the Old Testament, and Psalms such as 130, and 136 tell us that God intentionally seeks justice for the poor. If this is true then we ought to as Christians as God, how can we be active in helping him in his pursuit.

Notice I said His pursuit” this is because to minister to and with those who are poor and unlovely (and often times dangerous) is not our pursuit as human beings, it is not the thing that we choose naturally, that is why it is so hard to find social workers who have worked in the field for a long time (and if you can – ask them is they still enjoy their job). Working with the unloved is the business of the church. No one argues this point; it is just how we interpret the unloved that makes this tricky.

Who are the unloved? I think there are many in every race and class that are unloved. I think that we ought to have the church serving all peoples, and loving all. But the problem comes when everyone wants to love, serve and live in specific suburban areas. That is to say, there are too many people being called to the Suburbs (if that is what it is) and not enough being called to the city. Is God unaware of the needs in places like skid row in downtown LA where 20,000 people are homeless every night (In America)? And Skid row is just blocks wide and a not many deep. There are not many churches down there, and the ones that are really need help surviving because there are little resources. But In Pasadena where the city seeks to be a “Utopia” (this is literally what council members have said they want that suburb to be) there are churches (and wealthy ones at that) all over the place. Some of the largest and most influential churches in the country are here. So I ask who are the Unloved? And what are we doing to put our lives on the line to love them.

Isn’t this what Jesus did? He said if you seek to save your life you will lose it, but if you seek to lose your life you will save it. Did he also actually live this way? Shane brought up a good point about the times when Christ fled when his life was in danger. Christ did flee, but it tells us three things about Christ: 1) he had a certain appointment with death that could not be interrupted or maligned for his appointment would change the course of history (my death certainly is not anywhere close to this category); 2) If Christ fled from danger more than once that assumes that he continued to go back to dangerous areas; 3) and/or Christ was not in dangerous places because poor people and unloved people are not dangerous to him, rather danger came to find him – that is those who sought to kill him watched for opportunities to do such, such as the chief priests, Pharisees and Herod (Mark 2).

There are so many accounts of Christ working with those that would by today’s standards fall into one of our negative labeling categories that we ought to begin to re-evaluate what it is that underlies those categories. Is it Americanism? Is it the Church having fallen victim to wanting to grow in numbers and material goods? Is it our fear of loss and pain? Our search for safety? These latter two are not wrong, they are true for all humanity, but they must be fit into Christ’s upside-down values instead of the other way around. Those upside-down values are the things like the Beatitudes where the mourners are happy and the poor and feed – where Christ tells people to love their enemies instead of killing them, and if need be lay down your life for others, where he tells people to lose their lives instead of trying to save them, and where the last keep on truckin. This is the Christ who calls for a reversal of “White-Flight.”

I agree with my brother who stated that it is funny for one to say that Christians are leaving the city, when in reality most people want to flee to the suburbs. The clarification is that it is mainly the whites who are the ones leaving, this is an actual statistical fact and in the anthropology and sociology books you will find the exact term “White-Flight” to explain the phenomena that rules much of white Americans and that includes the church. Why are they running…fear.

But the God of Upside-down values says, “Fear not for I am with you, and Ephesians 1 talks of the triumphant power we have in Christ, Paul talks in Gal. that “I no longer live, But Christ in me (meaning he has forfeited all of his “rights to God, and in Phil. he say “to live is Christ and to die is gain (drawing a paradox of equal value between life and death). Finally we know that James Jesus’ brother told his audience that “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” Who are the orphaned and widowed in our day, the powerless, the hopeless, the unloved and rejected?

Finally I think that we should as Christians at least at Prayerfully what is my part in helping to serve the poor and unwanted.” Because this mindset is a much more active response to the problem than noticing it and wanting to do something about it, but yet making no move. This Our fault in downtown Canton, we loved living on 8th street, and knew a couple of people that lived on our street but neither of us were pro-active in being Christ to our neighbors and that is where we messed up. Because all God asks us to do is to be His people to those around us – to pro-actively love and serve whoever may come across our paths.

I guess I think often about Luke 4:18-19 and what Jesus said he came to do, it was his inaugural speech for his ministry, here are the things that were on his agenda that is pretty powerful and I want to have that same Christ-centered agenda because it was good enough for him. Secondly Matthew 11:4-6 Kind of tells what Jesus had accomplished that far into his ministry, which were the things he said he was gonna do …the good news is preached to the poor…” they had to be preached to because many of them had never heard before, because they were not welcome in the synagogues etc.

These are my thoughts that cloud up my mind, and take over my heart in passion.”

this weekend was pretty fun. Emily and I took it easy which we always like. We went to Ikea to look for some furniture and spent a lot of time just browsing the store. We love living on 10 min. from that place!

We went to our pasadena church this past sunday, it was fun, I got to run sound and emily did the slides, she is really the coolest! We will miss hanging out at foothills community church but we do feel the need to be plugging into Glendale more. We don’t really know anyone here or know much about where to go for stuff. We want to find the local spots, you know like where you take your car to get the transmission looked at, and where the best grocery stores are etc.

I guess i have been feeling weird lately. I have so much i want to do, mainly creative things. I feel like i can’t get there because I have so much school to deal with. Yesterday I was at an Art College and it made me regret never doing art in school. It is such a part of who i desire to be, its not that i think i am good at it, but it is something i always think about, always want. That is part of it. The other part is deeper, and not I haven’t discovered it yet. It is this on going dissatisfaction.

I am not sure why I have felt this – I think it is impart because I feel like I am doing nothing. What I mean is I keep thinking about Emily how she is working so much, and How we want a house and a nice car, and a comfortable lifestyle and i feel like I should get off my hind end and get a real job. I think this is one of the main struggles with school, and it is the one reason why many don’t go to school. they get caught up making money. But on my end, it is trying to stay focused on the finish line, investing is hard because you make real-time sacrifices, for something better later. This investment mindedness is what has been hard for me.

I found out yesterday that one of my brothers is in jail for driving with bad plates and no license. I hurt for him and his family. They don’t have much money, and he has really been struggling to find his way. I prayed for him this morning, a real pray, the first real pray i have prayed in a while. I really want to help them, I want him to follow Christ and find hope in this life. I prayed that this would be a turning point.

What will happen? Sometimes i can’t take all the drama Maybe because I can’t find my place in it, I don’t know what my role is, especially being so far away. There are times when I want to run and Hide, there are times when I want to run and save them. Then there are those times when I reminisce about the way the way things used to be.

My Wife, Emily, Filled this survey out the other day and I thought it was really funny. She pretty much just rocks!
http://xanga.com/pasadenarecords
This is what you’re supposed to do…and try not to be LAME and spoil the fun! Just give in. Copy (not forward) this entire

e-mail and paste it into a new email. Don’t forget to delete out all the other email Addresses so this doesn’t get mpossibly long. Change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then, send this to a whole bunch of people you knowÂ INCLUDING* the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known facts about your friends. It is fun and easy.

1. First Name: Emily

2. Were you named after anyone?Â no

3. Do you wish on stars?Â no

4. When did you last cry?Â Strangely, I donât knowâ¦ I have a tendency to cry often, but havenât had a reason to cry lately.

5. Do you like your handwriting? Nope

6. What is your favorite lunchmeat? Peanut butter

7. What is your birth date?Â Â 11.17.80

8. What is your most embarrassing CD? ???

9. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? Yeah, I guess I would say I agree with myself about a lot of things.

10. Are you a daredevil?Â I donât knowâ¦ I teach Junior High.Â Does that qualify?

11. Have you ever told a secret you swore not to tell? YES

12. Do looks matter? Noâ¦. but the way you take care of yourself does.Â

13. How do you release anger? Cry and yell and get violent.

14. Where is your second home?Â Cali.

15. Do you trust others easily?Â Yesâ¦ and no.Â I assume the best of people, but I also assume they wonât accept me for who I am.Â I guess that shows a lack of trust.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? I really donât know!

17. What class in high school do you think was totally useless? World History taught by the football coach.Â Talk about bad professional practicesâ¦

18. Do you have a journal?Â Yes, I donât use it often enough, though.

Here is an email my good friend Rob Strong sent me earlier today its worth the humor:

I was on a film shoot from noon till 2a.m. Liu and I are doing extra work for our new hobby. ‘Gotta shoot the breeze with Rob Lowe about 1 a.m.

The conversation went something like this:

DIRECTOR

Cut!

The buzzer buzzes, a room full of extras sigh with relief, and Rob, the extra runs up to the assistant director, grimacing and holding his crotch like a little school-boy.

ROB STRONG

Oh, God! Please! We have five minutes

till the next shot gets set up. I’m an old

man, and I’ve gotta take care of my

prostate! My bladder’s distended like a

playground kickball.

The Assistant Director waves Rob on without even looking, continuing to argue with the other Assistant Director through his head-set.

ASS. DIRECTOR

Just don’t try to come back in if the red

light’s on!

Rob smacks open the steel door, and stops for a second enjoying the cool night air. He begins to stroll quickly down the sidewalk toward the bathroom-for-extras on the other side of the trailers. He hears the door open again behind him and turns briefly to see a black-clad figure walking swiftly just behind him.

ROB LOWE

How’s it goin’.

ROB STRONG

Hey, man, okay. I’ve got a tank load of

coffee to get rid of. I didn’t know we’d be

here this late.

ROB LOWE

Yeah. I know. I’m gettin’ ready to go

fire some up myself.

ROB STRONG

Right on, man. See ya.

ROB LOWE

Yep.

Rob Strong continued to stroll swiftly toward the bathroom, his distended bladder taking up more thought space than the brief encounter with celebrity.

As he peed into the urinal, he grinned with elated relief. Then he thought to himself

I was on the official Napoleon Dynamite site this morning and signed up to be nominated (sp.) for the president of the fan club. I had to answer these questions below.

1. Skills
drinking vinegar, and ramping off the curb on my bike

2. what is your campaign slogan
give the curly head a try

3. imagine its your first day of duty as the the president of the napoleon dynamite fan club and someone says to you, unless we do something now, evil robots will rule the earth in less than 10 years. What would you do?
i would buy Breyers Ice Cream for everyone for a year, and then do extreme sports and stuff to have fun before we die.

4. If you could have one mythical beast as a pet what would it be and why?
Star-ama. a starfish – Llama, because starfish can barely be killed (and they’re shaped like ninja stars) and llama have really long necks to see things plus they’re just freakin cool.

5. if you have to watch just one scene, say youd been imprisoned for eternity by an evil overlord, what one scene from Napoleon Dynamite could you watch endlessly until saved by your loyal subjects?

-the part where he asks the girl to get her stuff out of his locker-room because he needs room for his numchucks. either that or the last scene with the tether ball.

6. Top Three Reasons to believe in Napoleon Dynamite.
1. HIs apprehending glasses.
2. He is tough
3. chicks dig him

7. if you could take any food prodent, other than potatoes, and creat a tot from it, what would you select and why?

tofu, because my wife is a vegetarian.

8. DO you know sign language? if yes, prove it.

-no  because I am not deaf

9. if you were going to the drive-in, perhaps to see a sweet film like enter the dragon or chapping mall, but could only fit four other people in your car, what people from history, fiction or the realm of magic kingdoms would you take as your guests? And if you could sneak one more person in the trunk, who would that be?

I would take Hannibal smith from the A-team, Gandalf the white, Donatello the Ninja Turtle, and Inspector Cleuseau from the Peter Seller’s Pink Panther flicks. And for the trunk i would take Jamie Pitts my friend from school who could handle the rough ride of the trunk and then he would jump out of the trunk when we get there and announce that he will be my vice president of the N.D. club.

10. What is your favorite color (other than blue, red, green or mint)?

-dark brown like my hair and my eyes.

11. if you had one of the new tape players that can hold 5,000 songs, what 5,000 songs would you play on it?

this cd needs to be bought (to all you thieves out there – including myself) and listened too. it is incredible and so are the people that make this music. congradulations micheal, you deserve this. and if it makes anyone feel better i bought it. today at Best Buy how cool is that.